KULHAD for LIVELIHOOD

Youth in rural tribal are migrating for family livelihood, The making of KULHAD (Clay Tea &Coffee Cup) could be good option for sustainable livelihood of rural youths.

Ensure sustainable livelihood and skills for rural tribal youths.

The proportion of formally skilled workers in India is extremely low, at 4.69% of total workforce, compared to 24% in China, 52% in the US, 68% in the UK, 75% in Germany, 80% in Japan and 96% in South Korea. 

Due to this situation, better employment opportunities are not available and livelihood crisis persists. There is no urge to do self-employment among the youth, no one wants to become an entrepreneur. There are some important reasons such as environment is not there for entrepreneurs, it is very difficult to get financial and other resources to implement the idea, it is not customary to take risk by investing own capital. Fear of failure, taunts from family and community. Critical Government Policies and Approaches of Government Officials. If there are no skills then there are no employment opportunities, Skill India program is also not very effective, training quality is very poor. Doesn't work on EDP.

During the covid-19 lock down, Manthan and Mridul noticed that traditional potters were facing increasing livelihood crisis, their clay pots were not sold and they did not have money to meet their expenses. Manthan and Mridul started working for Potters, marketing their products online. Due to this, about 10 families got a lot of support during covid and their livelihood crisis was removed. During this, both did a lot of survey and research and understood the demand and supply of clay products. In 2021 discussed with the local youth who migrate in search of work and started working on setting up small pottery making units. This work is being done in the direction of environmental protection along with sustainable livelihood and skills to the local youth.

Local tribal youth lack skills, they also leave studies due to poor family economic condition. Migrates in search of work in big cities for the livelihood of the family. There are a large number of youths who are looking for employment, youths have capabilities but proper guidance and necessary support are not available, most of the time youths work as laborers, they do not get opportunities to move forward. There is also a great lack of skill, due to lack of skill, the opportunities to move forward become limited. The use of local resources, the energy and potential of the youth are not utilised. Due to non-availability of employment, one has to migrate for a long time, migration has its own disadvantages and advantages. The lock down of covid-19 greatly affected the people who migrated, how many lost their lives while returning home. It was necessary that employment opportunities should be made available to the youth at the local level.

In view of the above problems, clay pottery was seen as a solution. There are some special reasons to choose it, in the last almost 2 years, online business has inspired in this direction, as well as ideas and innovation are possible in it. There is a demand for pots and other articles of different designs. Area where work is started, availability of rough material like best quality clay, availability of space, willingness of youth to learn skill, good returns, increasing demand and eco-friendly.

Firstly we have started making three products, KULHAD (tea -cup disposable use and throw), KATORI (small bowl) and PLATE. We have started production of these three products. Its technology is also very simple, it uses both human labour and machines. After processing the clay, products are made by the molding process, after drying the products are fired in a kiln.

This is team work solution, such a work that employment is being created. Apart from production, packaging and marketing is a big part. Along with this unit, we learned every process and taught it to our colleagues. Such as making molds, operating and repairing machines, ensuring production quality, processing clay, furnace temperature, etc. All these processes were learned and skill transfer to peers. Overseeing packaging and marketing after the product is made. Production has started from this unit today.

This solution is primarily affecting the youth. Today the livelihood of 17 people associated with this unit is being ensured. Primarily 17 youths are getting better income for the last 6 months, due to which food, education, health, clothes are arranged for other members of their family. There is no need to leave his house and go out, he has got better employment opportunity near his village.

Skill is second advantage, today all the youth are familiar with this technology and have been able to learn every step of production. All the youths are in the age group of 20 to 28 years. Apart from production, some youths are being prepared for offline marketing and online marketing.
Also we are providing marketing support to traditional potters for their handmade products, currently marketing their products to 12 families who are traditionally potters. This has also ensured their livelihood.
Indirectly clay owner, local small transporter are also getting some income continuously from this unit.

Our team is very capable and young, full of energy with youth engaged in problem solving. Here the details of KEY team member are being given.

1. Manthan is a graduate in photography journalism and pursuing post graduation in travel and tourism. Along with the work of photography, he is working with the youth by giving full time to this work. Manthan and Mridul have established this unit under the name of Tribal Culture Ceramic.
2. Mridul Utkarsh is pursuing post graduation in Cinematography, is technically competent and an excellent communicator. Dealing with online marketing and great business sense.
3. Santosh Sonwane is a person with 8 years of work experience in rural community, has excellent ability to mobilize the community. There are small skills and understanding of rural culture, customs and dialect. Santosh is a graduate in social work.
4. Komal Shandilya is an excellent coordinator of community level programs, a good trainer of subjects like community and team coordination, leadership, nutrition health, Graduate in Sociology.

The team has put in a lot of hard work in setting up this production unit. Along with our own resources, we have started the work by taking loan from the bank. The team learned every skill and gathered information before setting up the unit. The team is working to take the unit forward by associating local tribal youths with this work.

We gathered information about the need of the product and its users at different levels. At present, policy level changes are also taking place, where plastic disposables are being banned. This is helping to take the solution forward. The demand for clay pot has increased, the demand for the use of clay cups in small tea shops at the local level is continuously increasing. The current demand for Clay Cups (KULHAD) is 0.5 million in our district as well as 5 to 6 nearby districts. If only 10 big cities are included in this, then this demand becomes 10 million. While the supply is being done from another state. We have information about it and we are constantly updating our information.

I am volunteering with CDC for last two years. And now we are closely working with CDC (Community Development Centre) on this project. The organization has been working with the community for many years in this area on the topics of livelihood, health, education, child rights etc. CDC has great relationships with the local community. With the help of CDC's work experience, we have identified the needs of the community. Interaction with youth, FGD and families were held from time to time, needs were understood and then the solution was selected. There are very few opportunities for the youth in the tribal community, lack of education and lack of information. 

The work area of the organization is spread in about 40 villages, every year a lot of youth migrate from these villages and many times they have to work as bonded labour. There are many such cases on which the organization has also worked and saved the youth. We have understood the problem and needs of the youth. We are familiar with their local customs, culture, dialect etc.

As mentioned earlier about the problem. Production of KULHAD for lack of employment and availability of employment to rural youth. KULHAD is an innovative approach in itself, as an alternative to plastic and disposables. The demand for KULHAD and other clay products is on the rise, with street food stalls replacing disposable clay products. KULHAD is not produced in large quantities in our surrounding districts, one of the main reasons for which is clay.

Clay is available in our area and there is a possibility of production on a large scale. KULHAD production is a straightforward solution to two kinds of problems. 

• The first is the availability of employment to the youth and,
• the second is environmental protection. 

Also support for marketing of products of traditional potters. This solution will definitely make a significant impact in hotel and event marketing in the future, replacing plastic and disposables from the market by increasing the product range.

In the next one year, we have set a target of providing employment to 50 youths from this unit. For this there are some important things that we have to do.

1. To increase the current production to 6 lakh KULHAD per month,

2. Installation of 80 feet long furnace,

3. Improving the system of packaging and storage,

4. increase storage capacity,

5. Establishment of marketing and sales unit,

6. Bringing the system into digital form,

7. marketing app

8 To explore the possibility of export and export 10% production,

9. Advocating the use of clay products for better health

10. Ensuring place of KULHAD in every family kitchen

To achieve these goals, we have prepared our roadmap.

• To expand the infrastructure of the production unit,
• arranging funds
• Training more and more youths like: production, quality control, packaging, marketing and transportation.
• Increase production timing, (shift system) 
• Creating client base, social media and one to one contact to get their demand and orders.

KULHAD construction is an employment generating activity, it involves both new and traditional technology. Both manual and machine work is done, such as;

1. Mold making is a manual work, in which the entire process of copying the mold from the mother mold is manual. The technology and materials used are local.
2. Soil preparation: This is a long process involving both mechanical and manual work. Grinding of clay, cleaning of clay and wetting of clay and then drying. All these works are manual in which technology is also used.
3. Making of KULHAD: The process of making Kulhad is done by machine, which has to be operated.
4. Cleaning: After making the kulhad, its cleaning, for this also a small technique is needed.
5. burning of KULHAD
The process of making clay KULHAD is very long, in which machines and techniques are used at different stages.
It is a very simple technique to master quickly, does not take long to learn. The machines are very easy to operate.

At present our solution is supporting 16 people, it is a direct support which is providing employment to the youth. Also indirectly supporting envrionment through producing 1 lakh bio degradable cups every month which is reducing one lakh plastic disposal.

By next year, Another 50 youths will get employment with this work. And we will be able to produce 6 lakh bio-degradable clay cups monthly.

In general, we have identified some of the barriers that may prevent us from reaching our goals.

Finance: We need finance mainly for running cost and setting up of furnace, if it is not arranged in time then there may be problem. There is very limited financial resource for startup in India, if available too much process to get the support. 

Technology: We need a bigger furnace to increase the production, failing which our target will be affected.

Client Management: Due to non-production, there will be no supply to the client, which will affect further.

Presently we are associated with a local NGO, CDC is a local organization which works on different topics in the community. CDC cooperates with us in mobilizing the youth, as well as the organization does the work of training the youth.

Along with this we have partnership with Amazon and Flipkart as sellers which are online marketing partners.

PRAMOD BOTHRA (CA), We are partnered with this firm for our quarterly return and other legal formalities.

We have obtained permission from the Department of Revenue for the availability of clay for our unit.

Our work is not just a business, we see it as an opportunity for ourselves and the team. We are addressing two types of problems. Rural Youth Employment and Bio Degradable Cup.
We can address both these problems only when our business is profitable. Our business model is based on all those topics which generate revenue. Personal investment has been made at the initial stage, both financial and human investment. We are looking for more funds to take the business forward. The business is based on production because there is a lot of demand. That is why we are working on increasing the production.

I am interested to study and learn more, I have enrolled for online course through given link.

As per our plan, our solution will be financially sustainable in the next five years. But the present time is very important, at this time we are exploring grants, interest free loans, subsidies etc. The next three years are very challenging in making this business profitable and financially viable.

After that we will be able to spread this work on a larger scale.